Alice Sebold Biography

Summary

"Alice Sebold" (b. September 6, 1962 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American writer. She has published three books: "Lucky" (1999), "The Lovely Bones" (2002), and "The Almost Moon" (2007).

Early life

Sebold grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and graduated from Great Valley High School in Malvern, Pennsylvania in 1980. She then enrolled in Syracuse University.

When she was 18 years old and a freshman at Syracuse, she was attacked, beaten and brutally raped in a nearby park. Following the incident, Sebold went back to her dorm where a security guard called an ambulance. After some months at home Sebold returned to Syracuse to finish her bachelor's degree and study writing. Months later, while walking down a street near the Syracuse campus, she recognized her rapist and secured his arrest.

Following graduation from Syracuse, Sebold went to Texas for graduate school. Then she moved to Manhattan and lived there for 10 years. She held several jobs as a waitress and tried to pursue her writing career. Sebold wanted to write her story through poetry, but that, and attempts at writing a novel, did not come to fruition. She used heroin recreationally for two years, though claims she never became addicted. Sebold recounted her substance abuse to students at an "Evening of Fiction" workshop by saying that, 'I did a lot of things that I am not particularly proud of and that I can't believe that I did.'

Sebold left the city and moved to Southern California, where she became a caretaker of an arts colony, earning $386 a month and living in a cabin in the woods without electricity. She would write by propane candlelight. Later, Sebold applied to graduate school at University of California, Irvine (UCI) in 1995.

Alice Sebold's first published book was a memoir of her rape as an eighteen-year-old college freshman. Titled Lucky because one of the policemen told her that she was lucky to be alive--not long before Sebold's attack, another young woman had been killed and dismembered in the same tunnel--the book was many years in the making. Sebold returned to Syracuse University, the scene of the rape, and finished her degree. She studied writing, and wanted to write her story then, but kept failing. 'I wrote tons of bad poetry about it and a couple of bad novels about it--lots of bad stuff,' Sebold told Dennis McLellan of the Los Angeles Times. She explained to McLellan why the novels were not successful: 'I felt the burden of trying to write a story that would encompass all rape victims' stories and that immediately killed the idea of this individual character in the novel. So the novels tended to be kind of fuzzy and bland, and I didn't want to make any political missteps.'

Sebold continued trying to write after graduation and moved to New York City, where she lived for ten years. 'I worked a lot of different jobs and became a competent New Yorker, which is no small task, and went through a lot of stuff and rediscovered reading on my own and I became more honest to who I was, which matters a lot. I went out a lot. I would go to a lot of readings. I did a lot of things that I'm not particularly proud of and that I can't believe I did,' she recalled in a talk she gave at the University of California--Irvine (UCI) as recorded by Ehzra Cue on the UCI Web Site. At that talk, Sebold presented climbing to the top of the Manhattan Bridge as an example of something she can't believe she did; in other forums, she has also discussed the three years during which she used heroin while she was living in New York.

Lucky began to take shape in the late 1990s, when Sebold was studying fiction writing at a graduate program at UCI. A ten-page assignment sparked her to write forty pages about the rape. Although none of that writing was itself included in the final book, the experience was the impetus for Sebold to begin doing research and putting her memoir together. She read through old letters and journal entries, the transcripts of her rapist's trial, and even returned to Syracuse and talked to the former assistant district attorney who had helped to prosecute the man, allowing her, even fifteen years after the attack, to tell the story in great detail. The result is 'a remarkable personal look at a crime all too common in our out-of-whack society,' wrote Toronto Sun reviewer Yvonne Crittenden. Despite her dark subject matter, 'Sebold's wit is as powerful as her searing candor,' remarked a Publishers Weekly contributor.

The Lovely Bones

Sebold's second book, The Lovely Bones, is similarly dark in topic. Its narrator, fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon, is raped and killed by a neighbor at the beginning of the book. She narrates the story of her death--and of her family, her friends, and herself coming to terms with it--in the first person from her omniscient seat in heaven. This is 'Sebold's most dazzling stroke,' declared a Publishers Weekly reviewer, as it 'provides the warmth of a first-person narration and the freedom of an omniscient one.' That omniscience is necessary, since Susie's tale encompasses several different stories: Susie's mother's search to build a new life away from the family after the murder; her father's quest to find the real killer, into which Susie's teenage sister Lindsey is drawn and which puts her at great risk from the same killer; and Susie's vicarious living-out of her own teen and young adult years through Lindsay. 'What might play as a sentimental melodrama in the hands of a lesser writer becomes in this volume a keenly observed portrait of familial love and how it endures and changes over time,' Michiko Kakutani declared in the New York Times. Connie Ogle in the Houston Chronicle stated: 'The Lovely Bones is a disturbing story, full of horror and confusion and deep, bone-weary sadness. And yet it reflects a moving, passionate interest in and love for ordinary life at its most wonderful, most awful, even at its most mundane.' Writing in Christian Century, Stephen H. Webb admitted that The Lovely Bones has 'the most powerful opening chapter of any novel I have read.'

Sebold explained to Dave Weich of Powells.com that she had at first begun to write The Lovely Bones but stopped to write Lucky instead. 'As weird as this sounds,' Sebold commented, 'I think that after writing the first chapter of Lovely Bones, in which Susie is raped and killed, there was some urging on Susie's part that I get my own business out of the way before writing further into her story.' Andrea Dworkin, writing in the New Statesman, believed that 'The Lovely Bones is a tribute to the girl who died where Sebold was later raped.' Webb, too, saw a connection between the two books, concluding: 'This pair of books--one a careful documentation of events that are all too real, the other a fanciful tale full of the miraculous and the supernatural--constitutes one of the most memorable reflections on a kind of violence that many of us would rather ignore.'

In an interview with Publishers Weekly, Sebold said that writing The Lovely Bones 'was a delight, because I loved my main character so much and I liked being with her. It was like having company. I was motivated to write about violence because I believe it's not unusual. I see it as just a part of life, and I think we get in trouble when we separate people who've experienced it from those who haven't. Though it's a horrible experience, it's not as if violence hasn't affected many of us.'

After publishing Lucky in 1999, Sebold continued her writing career. She published a novel called The Lovely Bones in 2002. Auckland Writers and Readers Festival say that Sebold's novel, The Lovely Bones is a 'number one bestseller celebrated at once for its artistry, its luminous clarity of emotion and its astonishing power to lay claim to the hearts of millions of readers around the world' 4. The Lovely Bones is a story of a 14-year-old girl who is raped and killed. She tells her story from heaven looking down as her family tries to cope with the death of their oldest daughter. While working on Lovely Bones Sebold met her husband Glen David Gold at UCI in 1995. He arrived to one of his classes late and he could not remove his motor cycle helmet. Sebold began talking with Glen Gold and they were married in November of 2001 5.

Alice Sebold tells Publisher Weekly, I was motivated to write about violence because I believe it's not unusual. I see it as just a part of life, and I think we get in trouble when we separate people who've experienced it from those who haven't. Though it's a horrible experience, it's not as if violence hasn't affected many of us 6. Film director, Peter Jackson is going to make The Lovely Bones into a movie 7. Alice Sebold won for her novel The Lovely Bones the American Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award in Adult Fiction 2003 8 and the Bram Stoker Award in First Novel 2002 of the Horror Writers Association and was also nominated in the Novel category in that year 9.

Career

While at UCI, Sebold began writing "Lucky", a memoir of her rape. A police officer told Sebold that she was 'lucky' for not being killed because a girl was raped and killed in the same place she was attacked. The story began while writing a ten-page assignment, though Sebold eventually wrote 40 pages for her class.

After "Lucky", Sebold published the bestselling novel "The Lovely Bones". The book is the story of a 14-year-old girl who is raped and murdered. She tells her story from her personalized Heaven looking down as her family tries to cope with her death and her killer escapes the police. While working on "The Lovely Bones" in 1995, Sebold met her husband Glen David Gold at UCI. He arrived late for one of his classes and could not remove his motorcycle helmet, and they began talking. They were married in November 2001.

In an interview conducted by Ann Darby of "Publishers Weekly", Sebold said of "The Lovely Bones": 'I was motivated to write about violence because I believe it's not unusual. I see it as just a part of life, and I think we get in trouble when we separate people who've experienced it from those who haven't. Though it's a horrible experience, it's not as if violence hasn't affected many of us.' The novel is being adapted into a 2008 film of the same name by Peter Jackson.

Sebold's second novel, "The Almost Moon", continued what The New Yorker called 'Sebold's fixation on terror.' It begins: 'When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily.'

Awards

Sebold won the American Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award for Adult Fiction in 2003 and the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel in 2002. She was also nominated in the Novel category in that year.